Summer holiday, Summer garage sales

The Belgian coastline measures only roughly 70 kilometers and is dotted with family-friendly seaside towns like “Westende”, St. Tropez-style luxurious places like “Knokke” and “Nieuwpoort” and cities for shopaholics like “Ostend”. On a warm and sunny day, tourists from France, England, Germany and the Netherlands flock to the beach, but on a windy day, a collector’s Walhalla is to be found here with a 100 (yes, a hundred) garage sales a month taking place along the coast. Since everything is nearby it is the ideal afternoon out with the family.

Today was just like that: the sun was shining, but there was a lot of wind, so definitely a “no-go” for the beach. A quick glance at the garage sale calendar (yes, you can pick these up here at the local tourist offices) learned that there was a big 2-day garage sale in the seaside town of “De Haan”, so of we went.
Whilst the kids were looking to complete their collection of Barbie dolls and Little Pet Shop, daddy went out retro tech hunting.

Next to bucket loads of old keyboards, PCs from the single core era and the odd PS2 console, there were some vintage systems to be found as well. I picked up another C64 breadbox today in superb condition for just 10 Euro – a bargain! Of course, I’m still looking for that garage sale at which I can pick up a C64GS for a nickel and a dime (one can dream) but so far, no luck…

On the other hand, if you’re into consoles, the whole – that might be a bit of an exaggeration – history of consoles is on display. Today, tucked inside cardboard boxes, the dust still on them, I saw Atari’s, Sega’s, GameCube’s and the likes. The most expensive was the Sega Saturn controller that the previous owner was trying to sell for 15 Euro (hah, he had his hopes up when I took a closer look at it), but all the rest, even the box of Sega goodies went for under 10 Euro.
The old PONG console would swap owner for a mere 4 Euro.

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About me

Hi, my name's Robby and I'm a Commodore Geek.
This opening sentence does sound like the introduction to a meeting of Geeks Anonymous but I can assure you, there's more to me than meets the eye.
I’m married to the love of my life and father of the most beautiful daughters to ever grace our blue planet.